Lobbyists

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannotsurvive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” Cicero 58 Before Christ

Our founding fathers never envisioned that money from corporations and organizations would ever influence our judicial system and election process to the extent it does today. When a company donates to both parties, it is not for political ideology, it is so they have a voice in how our laws are made and enforced. It is so expensive to run a campaign that our politicians sell their souls and our futures to remain competitive. Consequently, laws are passed for the corporations instead of what is right for the populace. Even though our current president ran on the promise that no lobbyists would be in his administration, reality has proven otherwise. Who do you think wrote the laws that were passed that no one was able to read until the vote? Lobbyists did. Now Obama also promised us that we would have two weeks to read any bill on the internet before a vote took place, we would be out of Iraq by 2011, healthcare debates on CSPAN, cut the deficit in half by his first term and that he would reach across the aisle to Republicans. No need to address those issues which is a good part of the reason I’m designing this website. Here is an idea that I know will never be passed, but I’m throwing it out there anyway. Only allow an individual to donate the maximum amount the law allows. No corporate, union and especially overseas donations should be allowed. Require TV stations to run mandatory debates months before an election and have papers print exactly what a candidate stands for and keep their opinions on the opinion page. Imagine no corporate, union or overseas donations (like the estimated 200 million plus from the Middle East in the last election) allowed. Maybe, just maybe our politicians would be more inclined to pass laws that are good for the people instead of the donors. NAFTA was passed by both parties because of campaign donations. Ross Perot warned us that we would soon hear a giant sucking sound of our jobs going overseas. Can anyone dispute that he was wrong? Big Pharma is pumping over one and a half million dollars a day inside the Beltway. Remember the H1N1 scare? We spent billions for vaccines; many of the vaccines were impotent. In order for our politicians to pay back their campaign donors, they approved this unnecessary expenditure. How about the recent Solyndra debacle? We wasted over half a billion dollars to repay campaign donors. These are just two examples, there are many more. I know my idea is not feasible, but I honestly believe it is the biggest problem our country faces.